Note 1145 — Chapter XII

No wonder; the prelates had just solemnly decreed, as Abbé Bruslart informs us (Mém. de Condé, i. 52): "Non erat congrediendum cum his qui principia et fundamentum totius nostræ fidei et religionis christianæ negant." Not only so; but they had protested against the heretics being heard, and had declared that whoever conferred with them would be excommunicated! "Disants que ceux qui conféreroient avec eux seroient excommuniés." The reader, if he cannot admire their consistency, will certainly be struck with astonishment at the fortitude of the prelates who, a few hours later, could bring themselves with so little apparent trepidation under the highest censures of the Church. Bruslart goes on to tell us that it was the Cardinal of Lorraine who brought them into this dreadful condemnation, partly hoping to convert the Huguenots, partly to please Catharine de' Medici!